Hand in Hand

Riparian restoration, farming and tourism

Hand in Hand

Riparian restoration, farming and tourism

Reaching Out -

LLCI033-012

The issue

Simpsons Creek is a tributary of the Brunswick River and home to a wide variety of species. A history of land clearing and unrestricted access of cattle to the creek has caused severe degradation in sections. The Farm Byron Bay, a 80 Ha working and educational farm which has over 4000 visitors every month, was keen to demonstrate how to look after biodiversity and water quality alongside agriculture and tourism.

The solution

The Farm’s motto of Grow, Feed, Educate and their wish to revegetate the eastern headwaters of Simpsons Creek was identified as a good fit for the North Coast LLS Targeted Engagement Grant.

An area of 1 Ha was fenced with wildlife friendly fencing to restrict cattle access to the creek. The area was planted with 2300 native species to encourage a diversity of wildlife, reduce erosion and improve water health. The area was prepared and maintained without the use of chemicals, consistent with The Farm's policies. Grass weeds were controlled with black plastic, which smothered the grasses and heated the soil preventing germination of seeds. An 0.28 Ha area of old growth Threatened Ecological Community – Lowland Rainforest of NSW North Coast was also fenced off to exclude the cattle.

The Farm contributed a large amount of in-kind labour, materials and equipment use and the project was supported by a Green Army Team run by Conservation Volunteers Australia.

The impact

The major success of the project was the high visibility and reaching out to new people. The project was featured on The Farm’s Facebook page which has 26,000 likes and on their Instagram account that has 79,600 followers!

Being visible to everyone that drives into Byron Bay we hoped that this would encourage other landholders to follow. This has already been the case and we are now working with 3 other property owners further downstream who are keen to undertake work on their property.